. Earth Science News .




.
WATER WORLD
Algal turf scrubbers clean water with sunlight
by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 07, 2011

File image.

An article published in the June issue of BioScience describes the early scale-up stage of a new biotechnology with environmental benefits and possible commercial potential.

Algal turf scrubbers are field-sized, water-treatment systems that can extract excess nutrients from streams, canals, and lakes polluted by agricultural, domestic, and some industrial runoff.

They use sunlight as their principal source of energy and simultaneously restore oxygen levels. The devices work by pulsing contaminated water across algae that are allowed to grow on screens.

Algal turf scrubbers produce waste suitable for use as a nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich fertilizer and for conversion to biofuel or high-value nutraceuticals. Some algal turf scrubbers can even operate in open water, thus minimizing loss of agricultural land to the systems.

The BioScience article, by Walter H. Adey of the Smithsonian Institution, Patrick C. Kangas of the University of Maryland, and Walter Mulbry of the US Department of Agriculture, notes that the need to clean wastewater and various types of runoff contaminated with nitrogen and phosphorus is immediate in many places where natural waters are polluted.

Furthermore, some ecologists are worried about global supplies of phosphorus for use in fertilizer, so the byproduct could become more valuable over time.

The article stresses that algal turf scrubbing is not likely to ever be profitable just as a way of making fuel. Although more productive than terrestrial crops, algae, like other potential sources of biofuel, are expensive to cultivate, harvest, process, and convert into useful amounts of energy.

But algal turf scrubbing could become common if the economic value of nutrient removal can be applied to the cost of building and running the units.

That might depend on public policy that imposes a predictable cost on pollution of natural waters. But the fuel, fertilizer, and nutraceutical byproducts from algal turf scrubbing can only help.




Related Links
American Institute of Biological Sciences
Water News - Science, Technology and Politics

.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries






. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



WATER WORLD
Gadhafi's river could be hidden weapon
Cairo (UPI) Jun 2, 2011
The Great Man-Made River, a $33 billion irrigation system built by Moammar Gadhafi to provide water from a vast underground aquifer in the desert for Libya's people, could become a crucial element in his fight to preserve his embattled regime. The GMMR, as the project is known, is the crowning glory of Gadhafi's four decades in power. Hailed as a masterpiece of engineering, it provides ... read more


WATER WORLD
Japan doubles plant radiation leak estimate

Japan to report nuclear 'melt-throughs' to UN

Oxfam probes Pakistan flood 'irregularities'

Australians develop 'smart' bandage

WATER WORLD
Phase Change Memory-Based Moneta System Points to the Future of Computer Storage

Thomas Edison also invented the concrete house

3-D model mimics volcanic explosions

This is what the margins of the Ebro looked like 6 million years ago

WATER WORLD
Algal turf scrubbers clean water with sunlight

From seawater to freshwater with a nanotechnology filter

Freshwater algae mystery solved

Jellyfish blooms shunt food energy from fish to bacteria

WATER WORLD
New map reveals giant fjords beneath East Antarctic ice sheet

Support for local community programs key to climate change response in Arctic

Arctic access set to diminish by land but improve by sea

Assessing the influence of Alaska glaciers is slippery work

WATER WORLD
Viruses are 'new normal' for honey bees: study

Dubai looks to bag top spot as tea goes green

Ancient farmers chose rice attributes

Belarus ready to sell top potash firm: report

WATER WORLD
Chile volcano ash disrupts regional air travel

Floods kill 13 as heavy rains pound Haiti

Atlantic hurricane season sticks to the calendar: System 93L

Six dead in torrential Haiti rains: official

WATER WORLD
Burkina Faso arrests 93 soldiers after mutiny: officer

Six soldiers, girl killed as Burkina mutiny quelled

Fresh looting in Burkina's second-largest city

Obama has 'deep concern' over Sudan forces in Abyei

WATER WORLD
Small change makes a big difference for ion channels

Early hominin landscape use

World-Wide Assessment Determines Differences in Cultures

Historic mound in Britain 4,000 years old


Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News
.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2011 - Space Media Network. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement